Review of Need For Speed Carbon

The Battle For The City Is Won In The Canyon…

…as Need for Speed Carbon immerses you in the world's most dangerous and adrenaline-filled form of street racing.

Carbon is the next installment in the long line of EA’s highly lucrative Need For Speed franchise,
picking up from where Most Wanted left off.
If you’ve ever played EA’s Need For Speed games, then you’ll know what to kind of expect.
If you’ve never played them, then basically you start with one car and have to race your way through the games challenges in order to upgrade your current ride, gradually aiming to purchase bigger and better cars, which you then upgrade in order to defeat harder opponents.

Where it all begins!

As I’ve already mentioned, Carbon picks up from where Most Wanted left off. You return to Palmont City while being chased by none other than Sergeant Cross, who has now left the force and become a Bounty Hunter.
You finally get cut off thanks to a dead-end on Carbon Canyon overlooking the city. Luckily, or not, depending on how you look at it, you’re saved by an old “friend” who pays your bounty for you. However, you now “owe” him and have to race in order to pay him back.
Thus, your road to owning the city begins…

Tuner those Exotic Muscles

The gameplay is pretty easy really. You start by having to choose the type of car you want to race with, because your BMW M3 got totaled during the chase with Cross.
If you want the likes of a Ford Cobra then the Muscle cars are what you desire.
If you prefer the Porsche’s and other Sports cars, then it’s the Exotic Cars you’ll be wanting to drive.
The Tuner cars consist of the likes of the Subaru Impreza.

Racing, Need For Speed Style

The Three types of cars, as mentioned above, are Tuner, Muscle, and Exotic.
The following shows which cars are available in the different types.

Tuner, the bog standard cars that have both decent top speed and acceleration:

Infiniti
Lexus
Mazda
Mitsubishi
Nissan
Renault
Subaru
Toyota
VW

Muscle, the heavy duty of the car makes that take some controlling but well worth it in the end:

Chevrolet
Chrysler
Dodge
Ford
Vauxhall
Pontiac

Exotic, the Flashy Sports cars with practically unmatched top speeds and unbelievable acceleration:

Whichever car you choose to drive, you’ll be able to unlock cars from the other types as well as your starter type. So if you’re a guy who prefers muscle, but you want a Porsche in your collection as well, then that’s possible.

Do you have a Need For Speed?

This edition of NFS, like the other games in the series, is easy to pick up and play. The controls are as responsive as you'd expect from a great company like EA. The only downside is when trying to 'drift' round the Canyon Corners; the cars tend to swerve too much and you end up breaking heavily anyway to stop your car going over the side of the cliff.
The other thing worth noting is the button for the boost. If, like me, you play the Burnout games as well as the Need For Speed games, then you could get a bit muddled up with the Boost button as Burnout uses L1, whereas Need For Speed uses R1. Apart from that, the controls are basically the same for both franchises.

Tracks for your Tracks

With a wide variety of artists signed for this edition of the Need For Speed franchise, EA has provided an atmosphere that really integrates you into the game.
Not only is the atmosphere created with the songs, but with the sound effects as well. EA have gone all out with this game. They’ve actually gone as far as using real-life Porsche's, Lamborghini's, Mitsubishi's etc and recorded them accelerating, decelerating and doing slow and fast turns. This is then incorporated into the game to help create the illusion of driving the real thing.

Burn Rubber!

The new Drift races are good, but you can actually complete the game without having to race even one single Drift event. This game is much shorter than Most Wanted. Whereas in Most Wanted you had the Blacklist to complete, 14 bosses to contend with, Carbon pits you against only 4 bosses.

The only real way to extend your gaming experience, is to upgrade your cars, even going as far as using the new Autosculpt™ feature to create a cars look limited only by your imagination.

An Online feature would have gone down well also, but EA have left that out for this version of Carbon.

OUR PLEDGE: We promise that we have fully played 'Need For Speed Carbon' before writing this review. The scores given above are our honest opinion and were not influenced in any way by the manufacturer or distributor of the game.

"So, EA have done it again. They’ve created another good game for their Need For Speed franchise. Unfortunately, that’s it; the game is… well… just good. It has some great concepts but the game is just not long enough.

After only a couple of hours of gameplay, you can find yourself owning half the map after beating the first two bosses. A few hours later, at the most, and you’ve basically finished the game.

If you want a challenge, buy last years Need For Speed Most Wanted - it's half the price and twice the game !"

Score Breakdown:

Graphics 16/20Playability 40/50Sound 9/10Lastability 12/20

Our Recommendation:

This is a good solid title that should still appeal to those who like this type of game.

Need For Speed Carbon was created by EA Canada and is a Car Racing game.

NEED FOR SPEED CARBON FEATURES:

* Survive the Canyon—All-new Canyon Duel and Drift race modes are the ultimate test of skill and nerve, where one wrong turn could cost you more than the race.

* Customize Your Dream Cars—The revolutionary new Autosculpt car customization tool gives you the power to design and tweak your crew's cars in every way imaginable.

* Build Your Crew—Strategically choose your crew members and then use their skills on the road and in the garage to help you win races and customize your cars.

* The City Is Yours for the Taking—Race for control of the city block-by-block by taking down rival crews on their turf, then defeat their crew leaders in life-or-death races in Carbon Canyon.

* Represent a Class—Affiliate with the Tuner, American Muscle, or Exotic car classes and prove once and for all who makes the best set of wheels. A new physics model makes each class handle and drive differently.